amendment of life, know, that the message of Christ to you is a message of wrath.

You that are Gentiles readily it seems acquiesce in the condemnation of the Jews, because they have been a favored people. I admit that this circumstance is an aggravation of their guilt, they have under circumstances of extraordinary aggravation trampled upon the grace of God, they seem to have been eminently enlightened by the peculiar grace of God only to have become eminently guilty; you agree with me in condemning them, not seeing, that you yourselves on a similar principle, so long as you continue unrighteous, stand convicted of similar guilt, and obnoxious therefore to the threatened wrath of God. For on points of duty and the useful knowledge of God the lights of nature have never been inadequate, and in neglecting the lights of nature, and perverting the dictates of reason by immoral conduct, you are in principle guilty of the very same crime you charge upon the Jews.

With respect to man's general obligation to a life of righteousness, there is no difference between Jew or Gentile. On this point God .. has no respect of persons, and we know, (and as I have just said, when we think it does not affect ourselves, we are ready to acknowledge,) that the judgment of God against such as do

the very same things as we do, (I speak as one of those Gentiles to whom I am addressing myself) is a judgment according to truth; that is a judgment which common sense and common reason must approve.

Now my commission, as it announces God's judgment against all unrighteousness, applies with propriety and force equally to the Gentile as to the Jew. What were the words of Jesus when he called me? "I now send thee, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sing, and inheritance among them, who are sanctified by faith in me,” that is among them, who not only profess to follow that righteous man but actually do follow him. I therefore promulgated this blessed message, first indeed to them at Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea; but my commission extends also to the Gentiles, that they also should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance, God indeed has winked at the times of your ignorance, but now commandeth he all men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world. The day of retribution and justice is fixed and cannot be escaped. The blessed message of mercy, which I now announce in the name of Jesus, if you repent not

shall be the hand writing on the wall against you. He that rejecteth his message and receiveth not the words of Christ, hath one that judgeth him, the very words that he spake, the message I now press upon your attention, the same shall judge you in the last day.

You must acknowledge, that the unrighteous man, as he counteracts the very ends of life, deserves to be taken hence in wrath by his maker; the time is at hand, when Jerusalem shall be uprooted on account of her unrighteousness, and because she refuses the grace of repentance; you freely join in her condemnation, and yet have the hardihood yourselves to continue unrighteous and impenitent, as if in the terrible visitations of God a distinction could be reserved in your favor.

Do you imagine, oh, man, who seeth the.. sword of retribution pursuing an unrighteous and impenitent people, that you shall escape, who in principle are under the very same guilt with those, whose condemnation you applaud? Is that sword, which impends over your unrighteousness, but is for a time held back in mercy, held back in vain? Because God in his infinite goodness forbears to inflict the merited punishment, do you therefore think lightly of his terrors? ignorant, men! Discern you not in this forbearance the overflowing of God's goodness leading you to repentance?

Are you so utterly incorrigible, can your.. obdurate hearts proceed unmoved adding sin to sin, treasuring up to yourselves wrath against the day of God's merited wrath, and just retribution? The day when God will render to.. each man according to his works; bestowing.. everlasting life on those, who seek by an unwearied constancy in good works that glory, that honor, and that immortality, of which Christ's resurrection is a pledge to the faithful. As for the rebellious seed, who reject the truth .. and follow unrighteousness, God's displeasure is their portion. Misery, and dejection, and .. harass of mind upon all who make vice their practise. But for the faithful, God's favor is the lot of their inheritance; glory, and honor, and peace of mind upon all who make virtue their practise.

These promises and threatenings concern the Gentiles equally with the Jews. The Jews have had some advantage in as much as these promises and threatenings were first foretold, opened, revealed and promulgated to them, we had been under the law as under a schoolmaster, to be prepared and disciplined against the coming of the Lord. Yet that advantage is awfully compensated by the heavier wrath that awaits us if we have neglected to avail ourselves thereof.

amendment of life, know, that the message of Christ to you is a message of wrath.

You that are Gentiles readily it seems acquiesce in the condemnation of the Jews, because they have been a favored people. I admit that this circumstance is an aggravation of their guilt, they have under circumstances of extraordinary aggravation trampled npon the grace of God, they seem to have been eminently enlightened by the peculiar grace of God only to have become eminently guilty; you agree with me in condemning them, not seeing, that you yourselves on a similar principle, so long as you continue unrighteous, stand convicted of similar guilt, and obnoxious therefore to the threatened wrath of God. For on points of duty and the useful knowledge of God the lights of nature have never been inadequate, and in neglecting the lights of nature, and perverting the dictates of reason by immoral conduct, you are in principle guilty of the very same crime you charge upon the Jews.

With respect to man's general obligation to a life of righteousness, there is no difference between Jew or Gentile. On this point God .. has no respect of persons, and we know, (and as I have just said, when we think it does not affect ourselves, we are ready to acknowledge,) that the judgment of God against such as do